TSX Ends Sharply Lower As Stocks Plunge On Coronavirus Jitters

(RTTNews) - The Canadian benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended sharply lower on Monday as rising concerns about the spread of the dreaded coronavirus outside China triggered global growth worries and took a toll of stocks from across various sectors.

A sharp fall in crude oil prices amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand knocked the wind out of energy stocks. Shares from healthcare, information technology, industrial, financial and consumer discretionary sections also ended with sharp losses.

Materials stocks found some support thanks to rising gold prices.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 280.79 points, or 1.57%, at 17,562.74, almost 100 points off the day's low of 17,463.11.

Mirroring the sell-off in the energy section, the Capped Energy Index tumbled 4.12%. The Capped Healthcare Index declined 4.3%, while the Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary indices declined 2.91% and 2.43%, respectively.

With key stocks from the financial section wilting under pressure, the Capped Financial Index lost 1.83%, while the Industrials and Real Estate indices declined 1.59% and 1.12%, respectively.

Shawcor Ltd (SCL.TO), the biggest loser in the Energy section, declined by as much as 10.6%. Enerflex (EFX.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) lost 4.5 to 7%.

Cronos Group (CRON.TO) lost more than 10%, topping the list of losers in the healthcare index. Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO), Hexo Corp (HEXO.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) and Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) lost 4.9 to 6.7%.

In the information technology space, Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO) declined nearly 5%. Blackberry (BB.TO), Celestica Inc. (CLS.TO), Opex Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) and Lightspeed Pos Inc. (LSPD.TO) ended lower by 2.3 to 4%.

Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) declined 7.3%. Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Onex Corp (ONEX.TO) lost 1.4 to 2.5%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada rose 0.9% over a month earlier in December, rebounding from a downwardly revised 1.1% fall in the previous month and beating market expectations of a 0.5% gain.

U.S. stocks plunged sharply. The Dow ended down 3.6%, the Nasdaq plummeted 3.7% and the S&P 500 tumbled 3.4%.

Markets across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region tumbled as well on virus jitters.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down $1.95, or about 3.7%, at $51.43 a barrel, after falling to a low of $50.45 in the session.

Gold futures for April ended up $27.80, or about 1.7%, at $1,676.60 an ounce, hitting a fresh high since February 2013.

Silver futures for March ended up $0.346 at $18.876 an ounce, while Copper futures for March settled at $2.5770 per pound, down $0.0310 from previous close.

According to Chinese officials, the coronavirus has killed 2,592 people in China and infected 77,150 people.

South Korea raised its coronavirus alert to the "highest level" for the first time in a decade, following a rapid spike in cases over the weekend. Reports say the total number of cases so far in South Korea has risen to 763.

Italy became Europe's epicenter for coronavirus cases over the weekend. Iran has confirmed an uptick in infections.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said it is worried about the growing number of cases without any clear link to China.